The Tangled Web (24 page)

‘I got Pamela to do a bit of digging earlier this week. 
There’s Diana Dutkowiaks popping up all over the Internet with her picture.’

‘What?  How much does Pamela know?’ Vicky blustered.

‘She just thinks “Diana” is someone getting in the way of
an assignment.  She doesn’t know much else,’ Flic reassured her.  ‘I had a
think about it and maybe all Lumi would have to do was look up our Diana
profile - possibly even befriend her with a fake profile.  Then she would know
everything about the character and advise all the friends from Tête-a-net that
she’d been hacked and just to befriend her elsewhere.  Which would explain why
George wasn’t overly responsive.  Maybe he thought she was spam.  That’s why I
had to change tactics.’

Vicky threw her head theatrically into her hands.  ‘Well,
that would explain a lot  So what are we going to do?’

‘You’re not going to do anything.  I’ve fixed it,’ Flic
told her.

Vicky eyed Flic suspiciously.  Flic knew that Vicky didn’t
trust her to fix anything.  She knew that Vicky didn’t have much faith in her
abilities as a businesswoman or as a private investigator.  She realised that
Vicky was probably right to feel that way.

‘What have you done?’ Vicky quavered, her eyes wary.

‘I got George.  Properly.  There’s no way he or Amy will
need to get back in touch after they read the chat I had with him earlier
tonight,’ Flic cringed.

Vicky frowned and shook her head.  ‘I thought we agreed we
weren’t going to do…..THAT!  Not with anyone!’

‘I know,’ Flic replied.

‘How is that going to help?  I don’t understand,’ Vicky
hissed.  Flic knew that Vicky wanted to shout but was keeping her voice down
for Sasha’s sake.

‘I logged on tonight on a new profile and befriended him. 
I used a different profile, different name and different picture.  Now that
I’ve trapped him, I’ve printed the chat and emailed Amy to say the assignment
was completed.  The stuff in this envelope that I’ve printed is being posted to
Amy tomorrow.’  She gestured towards the envelope of documents she had prepared
when Vicky called.

Vicky leaned forward and grabbed the envelope from across
the table.  She took one sheet of paper halfway out of the envelope, skimmed
the words on it and stuffed it back where it came from.

‘Jeez!  That’s a bit full on!  Ok, so now Amy doesn’t need
to get back in touch.  She pays us, we forget about her.  What about Lumi? 
What’s to stop her from telling George anyway, if she hasn’t already?’ Vicky
reflected.

‘She can tell him what she knows – that we were posing as
someone called Diana and we used her picture.  But when Amy confronts him it will
be a different name on the chat with the honey trapper.  It will be Zoe.  And
the picture I used was of a red-head.  Lumi’s story will be completely
different from ours.’

Vicky appeared to mull this over for a moment.  Then she
began to nod and make sense of what Flic was planning.  ‘Right, so he’ll know
that he was trapped but Lumi’s story won’t add up.  There will be nothing
linking us to Diana.’

‘Exactly.  He was trapped by a red-head named Zoe.  And if
he were ever to get in touch and question me about it, I can say I’m a trainee
plumber now, which I am.  Nothing will link me to it.  Lumi will sound like a
weird liar with half a story,’ Flic assured her.

‘What about you and Adam?’ Vicky almost whispered.

Flic shuffled in her seat uncomfortably.  She wanted to
hold her emotions back and not give away how heartbroken she really felt. 
After only a few weeks with Adam she had gotten to the point where having to
give him up felt worse than giving up George had felt.  She opened her mouth to
indicate that she was fine about ending her relationship with Adam but nothing
came out.

‘Do you want to talk about something else now?’ Vicky
suggested.

Flic nodded sharply.  ‘Yeah.  Once we finish all our
existing HunE-trap Investigations jobs, we’ll hand the reigns over to Magnus,
or Pamela if she wants.   She’s eighteen now.  She can be as involved as she
likes.  THEN, I can think about me and Adam.’

Vicky patted Flic’s arm sympathetically.  ‘He thinks the
world of you.  I know he’ll want to try again.’

Flic waved her hand dismissively.  ‘Let’s forget about it. 
What about you?  You’re single again!  How exciting!’ she smiled, attempting to
cheer Vicky up.

‘It’s not exciting,’ Vicky grumped.  ‘I’ve got no hope of
going on a date with anyone I meet because I always feel like I’m taking
advantage asking my parents to babysit.  And I wouldn’t trust Pamela to do it. 
All my friends are attached.  My ex is off saving the world, one animal at a
time…being single is no fun.  Don’t get me wrong, I wouldn’t turn the clock
back.  I love having Sasha in my life.  It’s just hard.  And exhausting.’

‘Oh shut up.  You know I’ll babysit any time you like!  Can
I ask what happened between you and Sasha’s father?’ Flic ventured.  She had
always been curious and never thought the time was right to ask.  She asked
Adam once, who responded that Vicky’s ex was a “tree hugging prat.”

‘We had been together since we were at school and had
planned a big trip round the world together.  I started to really enjoy my job
as an undertaker though and decided not to take a year out for the trip.  I
used the money I had saved to buy a flat instead, which I then sold after Sasha
was born so I could move in with my parents again.  He still wanted to travel,
so I told him to go.  In the week before he left, we had a few arguments and I
told him it was over.  Just after he left, I found out I was pregnant.’

‘No!  So he didn’t come home then?’ Flic squawked. 

‘He never got in touch for me to tell him.  The year he was
supposed to be gone came and went and he hasn’t come back.  I get the
occasional update on Foursquare about what he’s doing but he never responded to
my email asking him to get back in touch.  Last week he updated saying he was
heading to Ecuador to work with macaws,’ Vicky snorted.

‘That’s shit,’ Flic sneered.  She guessed that Vicky’s ex
probably felt quite smug being off on his adventure, seeing the world.  But he
had missed out on one of the biggest events of his life by not responding to
Vicky’s email. 

‘What about his family?’

‘I’m not in touch with them.  They’re all over in Ireland. 
It’s fine, really.  We don’t need them,’ Vicky asserted. 

The hum of a vibrating phone interrupted her and Vicky
picked up her BlackBerry.  Flic watched as her face lit up in a way that it
only ever did when Christos was the one sending her a message.

‘I don’t need to ask who that is,’ Flic smiled.

Vicky blushed and stayed silent while she tapped in a
response to the message she had received.

‘What’s the story with this Christos guy anyway?  Are you
and him…?’ Flic pressed.

‘What?  Me and Christos?  No!  He’s got a girlfriend.  And
umpteen kids.’

‘So why are you blushing then?’ Flic sniggered.  ‘Come on,
after Adam was talking about him a few weeks ago I went online and had a quick
look at his picture.  I know how good looking he is,’ she teased.

‘Girlfriend.  Kids.  That’s all I’m saying,’ Vicky insisted
while her face turned fuchsia.

‘He’s hot.  That’s all I’M
saying,’ Flic winked.

‘I wouldn’t get involved with someone who’s already
attached,’ Vicky assured her.  ‘No matter how hot he was.  And how much of a
bitch his girlfriend was.’

‘If he was single…would you?’ Flic wiggled her eyebrows
suggestively.

‘I’m not having this discussion!’ Vicky persisted.

‘That’s a yes then,’ Flic grinned.

‘How do you work that out?’ 

‘If it was a no, you’d say no.  So it must be a yes,’ Flic
shrugged.

Vicky gave a mock angry expression before the two of them
collapsed into hysterical laughter. 

‘Ok, it’s a yes.  But he’s with someone, so it’s not an
option.  Not even worth thinking about.’

‘But you HAVE thought about it.’

‘Of course I have.’

‘Do you think he has too?  Do you think at some point
during all those cosy chats he’s imagined what it would be like to be your
boyfriend?’

‘Yeah.  I know he has.’

20

MAGNUM PMT’S BLOG

16
^th
April – Spy Another Day

As you may have guessed from the lack of activity on my
blog, our little agency is not my top priority at the moment.  We have taken a
hiatus and haven’t accepted any new clients for a few weeks.  To be honest,
life as a virtual private investigator was not as glamorous and exciting as we
had hoped it would be.  And I simply don’t have the time for this company any
more.  My day job is getting busier and my daughter is getting more mobile,
meaning I’m stressed to the max in the evenings.

The Pink Cougar split with her boyfriend, Lame Bond.  She
wanted to carry on trapping people and to do so would have compromised her
relationship with her current boyfriend.  So she ended it.  Despite the brave
face she’s putting on, I know that she’s devastated.  I sincerely hope things
can work out in the end for them.

It’s my opinion that the Pink Cougar is running out of the
emotional strength necessary to do her job.  She’s also busy with her work as a
trainee plumber(!?!).  The situation between her and Lame Bond meant that he no
longer wanted to spend time in her company and one of them will have to leave
the agency.  The relationship between Lame Bond and myself is also strained
because of what I am about to write next.  Bear in mind he is my brother and
knew what was happening, but chose not to tell me.

Sherlock Poems is still the head honcho here but The Pink
Cougar and I have lost all respect for him.  He and I were a potential couple,
but he decided to embark on a relationship with someone else – at the same time
that he was sleeping with me – and then chose her.  He gave me all the usual
excuses about not wanting to get serious.  Why does this ALWAYS happen to me? 
I’m sorely tempted to contact his live-in girlfriend and tell her what’s been
going on.  To the best of my knowledge, she is unaware of the situation between
me and him.  I’m far too busy to hunt her down though.

There really doesn’t seem much point in continuing with the
business, given the tension between everyone in the agency, trouble that it’s
caused and the old wounds re-opened for The Pink Cougar (I won’t blog them). 
I’ve also started to question my own integrity these last few weeks.  My reason
for starting this agency was to catch cheaters and expose them for the rats they
are.  I’d been burned in the past when I realised my ex-boyfriend was already
married.  I wanted to get revenge on those men and let their partners make an
informed choice about what they want to do with their relationships.

What I didn’t count on was finding myself falling for
someone who is already attached - with kids.  I speak to him every day and know
him inside out.  He isn’t happy in his relationship, which makes it even more
difficult for me to back off.  If I knew he was happy with his girlfriend, I
could just shrug it off as a crush.  But I know he’s not.  He’s a really good
friend but I wish he was more than that.

I often see him through my day job.  Every time I’m told
that a client has used his services and I’ll be getting a visit from him, I get
butterflies in my stomach. 

I haven’t spoken to him about how I feel.  How could I
possibly do that?  It goes against everything I believe in.  It goes against
what I’ve been doing for a living for the past three months.  If I thought he
didn’t return my feelings, I could own up to having a little crush on him and
the two of us would laugh about it.  But I’m starting to think he does return
them.  I feel so guilty and I haven’t even done anything! 

His girlfriend owns a business.  I used to visit her
business every payday to treat myself.  I can’t now.  I can’t look her in the
eye.  I can’t hear him mention her name without blushing from guilt.

How can I possibly continue my work as a honey trapper when
I myself am dreaming of breaking up a happy home?

21

To: [email protected]

From: [email protected]

Subject: Postcards from Diana

Date: 17
^th
April

Hi mate

I’ve got a
favour to ask.  I know that you’re going to visit family in Cyprus soon and I
was wondering if you could send a postcard while you’re out there.  It’s not to
me though, it’s to Flic’s ex-husband, George.  The assignment to trap him is
over but he’s started pestering Diana, the original honey she created.  We got
pissed off at his incessant flirting last night and told him Diana is moving
abroad.  He asked where and the first place we could think of was Cyprus.  We
told him she’s going to be offline for a few months.  Then he asked for a
postcard.  Once the postcard’s sent we’ll delete the profile for good.